Do You Think You Are Powerless To Change The World?

An Amazing Story About What Happens When We Speak Our Heartfelt Truth

In 2006, I was invited to dinner at my neighbor’s house. The guests, other than the neighbor and I, were the 14th Tibetan Shamarpa (Mipham Chögyi Lodrö), “Shamar Rinpoche,” as he was called, and his brother Jigme Rinpoche, who is the head of the large Tibetan Kagyu Buddhist center in my village here in France. Also, there was a Pakistani journalist and his wife, who were staying with my neighbor. The Pakistani woman was cooking a special dinner for us.

Two things I need to tell you: the first is that I wasn’t a Buddhist. I had moved to a place that is said to be the most blessed place on Earth by the Tibetans, because all of their most important and respected lamas of the last half century+ from all the Tibetan schools have taught here, such as the Dalaï Lama, who even I had heard about, and some have lived here full time, including His Holiness Kabjye Dudjom Rinpoche, who died here in 1987.

That’s amazing, given that there are only 452 residents here. But I didn’t know any of this when I bought a house here in 2002. Becoming curious about why there were so many Tibetan Buddhist centers in my community, because I was clueless as to why there were different types of it here amongst the 6 or 7 centers spread among the forests and hills above my village, I bought a thick book about the history and present organization of Tibetan Buddhism, and all its different…